Frances Perkins

Born in Boston, Perkins graduated from Mount Holyoke College, worked in education and social reform, participated at Hull House and pursued further study at Columbia. Factory conditions, child labour, hours and wages became central concerns of her work with reform organizations.

She witnessed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 and subsequently pressed for safer workplaces. Positions in New York State government followed. Appointed industrial commissioner by Governor Franklin Roosevelt in 1929, she used inspection, investigation and administration to pursue labour reform.

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Roosevelt appointed Perkins secretary of labor in 1933, making her the first woman in a presidential cabinet. Her background lay principally in social reform and state administration rather than trade-union leadership. She worked with states and organized labour on employment services, relief and standards.

The department recruited men for the Civilian Conservation Corps and developed a nationwide employment-service network. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 established wage, overtime and child-labour protections for covered workers. Training inspectors and sharing administrative knowledge with states were also important parts of her programme.

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In 1934 Perkins chaired the five-member Committee on Economic Security and coordinated expert work on unemployment, old age and family insecurity. A radio address in February 1935 distinguished public employment, unemployment compensation, assistance to needy elderly people and contributory old-age insurance.

The committee's report helped shape the Social Security Act, but proposals and enacted provisions differed. Health insurance was deferred, and voluntary old-age annuities did not survive congressional review. After leaving the Labor Department in 1945, Perkins served on the Civil Service Commission and later taught at Cornell and other institutions. She died in 1965.

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